Deck 3: Observing, Documenting, and Interpreting Childrens Play

Question 1

Planning play-based environments for young children requires early learning practitioners to examine:

A) The types of materials that the early learning centre has
B) Family needs
C) Child, child development, culture, and programming
D) The philosophy of the centre

Answer 1

Child, child development, culture, and programming

Question 2

In an early learning and child care environment, a child's thoughts are stimulated by:

A) Staff and families
B) Materials, other children, facilitators, and cultural artifacts
C) Field trips
D) Play materials available on a daily basis

Answer 2

Materials, other children, facilitators, and cultural artifacts

Question 3

The early learning environment and children's experiences are directly linked to:

A) School requirements
B) Spacial awareness
C) Community services
D) An early learning practitioner's knowledge and understanding of child development

Answer 3

An early learning practitioner's knowledge and understanding of child development

Question 4

A Thinking curriculum refers to the:

A) Experiences and knowledge that children bring to the environment and use in new discoveries
B) Planning process that early learning practitioners engage in
C) Process children use in their play
D) Peer-to-peer relationships in play and learning

Question 5

G. Stanley Hall incorporated observations into the child study movement to:

A) Illustrate to parent's the child's growth over several months
B) Bring scientific methodology into early childhood education settings
C) Collect data about each child so the true needs of each child could be gained
D) Justify the financial requirements for programming costs

Question 6

Reflective practice refers to a:

A) Scientific process used to examine the past
B) Process used by the early learning teachers and families children to examine discoveries or experiences of play episodes
C) Questioning techniques used to draw information from children
D) Recordings of activities

Question 7

Early learning teachers require skills in the following excluding:

A) Narrating young children's work
B) Documentation process
C) Communication
D) Drawing children's experiences as they observe their experiences

Question 8

Observing encompasses:

A) Watching children and recording what they do at a particular time of day
B) Sharing findings with parents and children
C) Documenting findings for the child's file
D) Observing, documenting, and analyzing the observations with children, parents, and colleagues

Question 9

Pedagogical documentation is a:

A) Program plan designed for children
B) Process whereby early learning teachers seek meaning about children's play
Experiences, both indoors and outdoors
C) Way a practitioner triggers the child's curiosity
D) Resource provided to develop a theme or topic for children to explore

Question 10

There are many ways in collecting documentation, this includes:

A) Program plan
B) Resources that will be used for the topic
C) What is to be reflected on, discussion points, and action to be taken
D) Artifacts, such as children's illustrations and printed communication

Question 11

Pedagogical documentation by contrast refers to:

A) Defined times during the program
B) A child conforming to a set of standards
C) When the child enters the program and every three months thereafter
D) Trying to see and understand what is going on in a pedagogical work

Question 12

Child observation is mainly about assessing whether a child is conforming to a set of standards, whereas pedagogical documentation is mainly focused on:

A) Meeting predetermined developmental milestones
B) Classifying and categorizing children in relation to a general schema of development
C) Child observation and documentation
D) Trying to understand what is going on in the child's work without any predetermined expectations

Question 13

The purpose of listening to the children when observing is to:

A) Set the stage to determine what to observe
B) Record useful information and specific quotes from children and their play
C) Be able to provide parents with samples of the children's level of expression
D) Determine what phase of development they are exhibiting

Question 14

When early learning teachers find themselves in a compromising position during an observation they should:

A) Stop the observation and get another practitioner to complete it
B) Continue to observe but tell the parents that the observation may be biased
C) Not share their observation findings with others
D) Develop a strategy to manage biases so each child has an equal opportunity to play and learn

Question 15

One of the reasons that early learning practitioners review observations and documentation is to:

A) Gain insight into how children approach problems and problem solving
B) Ensure that the information is accurate and acceptable to share with parents
C) Determine the types of activities that should be arranged for children so that they achieve specific developmental milestones
D) Determine what themes should be introduced to children

Question 16

Co-construction refers to:

A) How two children express meaning and interest in play with each other
B) Social interactions that occur among children and adults in exploring and sharing information about a topic
C) Building a structure together with peers
D) An observation method through collaboration

Question 17

Early learning practitioners examine observations to determine the level of meta-cognition of the child. This means determining the:

A) Cognitive milestones that the child has reached
B) Language milestones that the child has reached
C) Methods that the child uses to express knowledge about their thoughts and their thinking process
D) Ways of children knowing their skills and abilities

Question 18

Dietze and Kashin indicate observations should occur during outdoor play experiences because:

A) Parents want to know that their children are getting adequate outdoor play time
B) Outdoor play is less structured than indoor play
C) Early learning practitioners have more time outdoors than during the indoor program component
D) Children exhibit different strengths or new challenges from those observed indoors

Question 19

Learning journals are used to record:

A) What the early learning practitioners have gained from the program theme implemented
B) Any information about their learning, feelings or reflections by the early learning teachers, families, and children
C) Specific traits or behaviours that are observable
D) In-depth targeted information about an event

Question 20

The purpose of a portfolio is to record an array of experiences and achievements, made up of a collection of:

A) Observations, creative samples, pictures, and other artifacts
B) The types of interactions between adults and children
C) Specific traits or behaviours of the child
D) In-depth information about an event

Question 21

How do brief notes inform the practice of early learning teachers?

A) They provide in-depth observations during a particular play episode
B) They inform a particular moment in time
C) They ask specific questions about what children would like to do
D) They open conversations among children during their play

Question 22

There is an increased interest in adopting a contemporary perspective on pedagogical documentation processes.

Question 23

One of the first theorists to use pedagogical documentation was Jean Piaget.

Question 24

One of the challenges with observations that have occurred over time is that observations began to focus on groups of children's behaviours based on developmental norms.

Question 25

The purpose of engaging in collaborative reflective practice is to help early learning practitioners maintain their position, ideas, thoughts, and perspectives about a situation.

Question 26

Observation is to assess children's development against predetermined milestones.

Question 27

Pence and Pacini-Ketchabaw indicate that pedagogical documentation tools are fixed guidelines used to provide a correct view of the child.

Question 28

There is a need to work with children to document their learning and have them revisit their learning and their experiences.

Question 29

When having more than one early learning teacher observe a child at the same time, you may acquire varying perspectives on the same situation.

Question 30

Early learning practitioners should become familiar with observation tools and establish one preferred method to use for their observations.

Question 31

Active involvement with the children during an observation and documentation discredits the observational data.

Question 32

The most reliable observations are conducted indoors while the children are engaged in high level cognitive activities.

Question 33

Pedagogical documentation focus is on project topics only.

Question 34

Reflective practice brings to light a child's individual strengths, learning styles, and ways of knowing.

Question 35

Many early learning and child care programs use observation documentation for programming as a form of child assessment.

Question 36

Pedagogical documentation is a new methodology and process for understanding children.

Question 37

Describe how early learning practitioners would prepare an environment that allows children to access a thinking curriculum framework.

Question 38

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of conducting observations on children. Why has the process of observations become a discussion point in the early learning literature today?

Question 39

Discuss how an early learning practitioner's philosophical beliefs, values, and biases may impact observations and pedagogical documentation processes and analysis.

Question 40

Discuss the roles of children, families, and other practitioners in observations and pedagogical documentation.

Question 41

Outline the advantages and disadvantages of at least five documentation tools that may be used for observations or pedagogical documentation processes.